Thursday, September 27, 2012

A friend of a friend just posted a link to an article with the comment, "She says it much more eloquently than I ever could."

The article, found here, concerns the NYC MTA's decision to allow ads that say, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” to be put up in 10 subway stations within New York City.

I agree, the ads are inflammatory-- and are meant to be. I think there are other ways of saying things, and, no I don't believe that all Muslims are bloodthirsty barbarians (or savages, to use the ad's wording). This is the discussion that followed on the comment thread (note: I have changed the commentor's names to first initials, except mine which I have labeled "me"); M is the friend of the friend:

D:Great article, THANKS!!!D:Zionist racism -- a redundancy? -- is rarely confronted with such eloquenceM: I
agree. I'm terrible. All I keep thinking is that I'm tired being called
all these stupid names because I basically exist. I've been really
quiet about this whole debacle for that reason. I'm glad there are
people who are much more level-headed than I am.D: I
just had an extended e-kerfuffle with a prominent "liberal" film
scholar. The guy finally showed himself as a racist, claiming that the
UN had been bought by Arab money. This profound neurosis runs deeper
every day. It must be confronted, which I usually do by calling my
interlocutor a twat.D: We're about to nuke Iran and few people care..M:If the UN had been bought by Arab money, the UN is sure doing a crappy job keeping up their part of the bargain, no?S:It's
appaling, this whole thing - I'm kind of surprised the MTA allowed
these to be posted - I understand the free speech issue at play in all
of this, but these are just plain horrible. Would the MTA let the
Westboro Church post an ad, too then?M: I do wonder if we really are gonna nuke Iran... the US has been threatening it for years now.M:Sara,
the MTA had been fighting it for a while, and originally told the
organization that they couldn't go up. It got taken to court and, in the
words of the MTA spokesperson, "their hands are tied."E:These
ads are vile. I say this as a human secularist, as an American, and as a
person of Jewish descent. There is nothing in them I can agree with or
support. Yes, they absolutely have
the right to say it, but freedom of expression is not freedom of
consequence of expression. This is the very wrongest way to have this
conversation. I agree that we owe ourselves, future generations and
America a chance to have this conversation in a meaningful and hate-free
way.Me: While
I agree with the right to free speech and that the ads are
inflammatory, I have a very big problem with a basis of her article. Ms.
Sarsour wrote, "Geller elaborated that there
is no Palestine – a view not held by most Americans." Whether or not
most Americans hold the view that there is a place called "Palestine,"
the fact is-- there hasn't been since 1948, when the British Mandate of
Palestine ended. Just because many people believe something does not
make it true-- the world isn't flat, is it?

My
friend's father can correctly say he was born in Palestine-- indeed, he
was, when the area he was born in was under the British Mandate of
Palestine. No one born since May 14, 1948, can say that he or she was
born in Palestine, nor can he/she claim to be a Palestinian-- can anyone
born in Massachusetts claim to be British, because at one time
Massachusetts was a British colony? No, because the British colony of
Massachusetts no longer exists.D:Palestine
was stolen via terrorist acts -- ask Rahm Emanuel's daddy, a former
Irgun terrorist who shot babies. So you have old folks walking around
with keys to their now bulldozed homes. Telling them to wake up and smell the coffee is just plain immoral. There are UN resolutions that call it illegal, too.[note: D combined and deleted some of his original comments; each new comment is marked with a "-." the original of this was:-Palestine was stolen via terrorist acts -- ask Rahm Emanuel's daddy, a former Irgun terrorist who shot babies.-And so you have old folks walking around with keys to their now
bulldozed homes. Telling them to wake up and smell the coffee is just
plain immoral.-There are UN resolutions that call it illegal, too.-Marek Edelman fought Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto and, as a
Universalist, claimed the PLO had a right to fight against Zionist
oppression-This issue ain't going away. Thank goodness for Israeli youth -- they're moving Left.]Me: There are lots of individuals that I can name who have argues on both sides, regardless of the issue. In terms of infants-- would you like me to start naming the babies who have been killed in terror attacks? This
was not meant to turn into a pissing contest of who has done more wrong
to who and who is more in the right. I brought up a historical fact,
and you turned it into "Here are examples of the bad Zionists who stole
Palestine." I agree that there was a place called Palestine, however I
also state that it no longer exists. Simply having existed once upon a
time does not make something exist at this moment. To go back to my
earlier example-- what about the British colonies that no longer exist
as British colonies? Can I, having born in an area that at one time was
under British rule, claim British nationality? Or if I was born in
Turkey, can I claim to be Ottoman?

And
what do you say to and about people like me, my husband, and the other
medic on duty two nights ago who, when we got a call to an Arab village
for injured people, got out of our nice warm beds and in the middle of
the night went to take them to the hospital? The Red Crescent was
supposed to take them (there is a Red Crescent ambulance station in that
area, by the way) and didn't show up until 20 minutes after we got
there (in our defense, we wanted to take whoever we could asap-- the
patients wanted to wait for the Red Crescent, and then decided to go
with us). We took those patients to the hospital of their choice. And
when they got there and saw that there was no doctor on duty (don't ask
me why), they decided they wanted to go to another hospital. And we took
them.

So
don't only thank goodness for Israeli youth-- thank goodness for the
people who don't care if their patients are Muslim, Christian, Jewish,
Arab, Israeli, or anything else and treat them regardless. (you do know
that homicide bombers and terrorists get treated as well, right?)S:Yikes
- that's really unfortunate, Margo. I guess it's nice to know the MTA
tried...still doesn't really make it any better, though. I wish people
didn't feel the need to resort to
hateful name calling in subway advertisements as opposed to, well, an
actual discussion. These kind of reactions harken back to New York a
century ago, when instead of Palestinians, it was Italians and Irish...[D posted and deleted the following comments; again, each new comment is marked by a "-":-Lauren: you have a bizarre perspective. Operation Cast Lead? if
you think the casualties on the Israeli side come anywhere near to the
number o Palestinian dead, then you are, sorry, wrong.-Your rage is irrelevant.]Me: Daniel,
I'm going to stop this now not because I don't have what to say or
don't have facts to back what I say up, but because it's just going to
turn into something ugly and hateful.

You
have your opinion and viewpoint, I have mine, and neither of us are
going to change the other's. So let's just stop, because this is not
helping any progress.D:Lauren:
you have a bizarre perspective. Operation Cast Lead? if you think the
casualties on the Israeli side come anywhere near to the number o
Palestinian dead, then you are, sorry,
wrong. Your rage is irrelevant. People are tired of filtering
discussions about war crimes through Jewish sensitivity. Be sensitive,
be angry, be self-righteous. The occupation is going to end with or
without your help. Israel is in the driver's seat, as the fourth most
powerful military presence on Planet Earth. The idea of symmetrical
responsibility is a fetid lie. Americans are sick of spending $10M per
day on the longest-running occupation in the world. And, yes, young
people in Israel are joining enormous protests against their government
-- I'm with them.

------------------------------------------------My FB status:[Lauren] would
like to reiterate: Palestine no longer exists. It existed from
1920-1948; no longer. You cannot claim nationality or citizenship of a
place simply because it USED to exist; I cannot claim British
nationality or citizenship simply because where I was born was once
under British colonial rule...

I debated replying to D with a list of babies murdered by terrorists, of names of people who "were on both sides" of a given issue, about the reasons for Operation Cast Lead and inform him exactly where the fire was getting shot at Israel from. I restrained myself. Not because I wanted to-- I want to rip him a new one-- but because there is no purpose in a one-sided debate. Someone wants to actually talk, I'm up for it. Someone wants to tell his side and insist he is right and throw out random facts-- wasting his time and mine.I did like my point about someone being born in a formerly British area claiming British citizenship because they were born somewhere that USED to be under British rule. (British friends, field day with that one?)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

I baked cookies. Lots of cookies. Honey cookies, zebra cookies (chocolate with powdered sugar), and cheese danishes. Last time I baked the chocolate cookies I sent some with my cousin back to the army.

This time I made about 30 2-inch cookies of each honey and zebra (now made with real zebras! ...just kidding...) and probably about the same number of cheese danishes (half plain, half with raisins). We went to my [adopted] family for Rosh Hashana and brought the cookies over. We had wanted to pack some up beforehand for my cousin to take back to the army, but we didn't have good containers, so I just packed up the leftovers-- he's happy :)

And now on cooking seasonally.

Israel, like many other countries, grows fruits and vegetables. And like on other countries, fruits and vegetables have seasons-- meaning that sometimes they can be found, sometimes they can't, and sometimes they are more expensive and other times they are less expensive.

Eli and I like to make at least one vegetable dish for Shabbat-- we make a lot, and then we just eat it for the rest of the week. We generally go to the shuk [open air market] for some vegetables, spices, rolls, random other things. This is the conversation that ensues pretty much every week:
-What vegetable do we want for Shabbos?
-I don't know...green beans/cauliflower/sweet potatoes/roasted vegetables...I don't know, whatever they have that's not expensive
-Ok...but what do you want?
-I don't know, see what they have.
And that is how we decide our vegetable dish for Shabbos.

Deciding dessert and side dishes:
We decide our dessert and side dishes based on what is leftover in the house. That's how we came up with Dead Fruit Cobbler. We had peaches and nectarines that were going bad, so we made Dead Fruit Cobbler-- with the dying/dead fruit.

I feel like this post was jumping around a lot. Sorry. My brain is thinking very fast and I'm hoping this came out somewhat coherent.

I have the challah dough and the cheese danish dough rising outside, I started soaking the cauliflower (which I have to finish). I put away the roasted vegetables, and I guess I'll finish this later, after I have the cauliflower and stuffing kugels in the oven.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

There is a time period in the Jewish calendar known as "the chagim," which is the pperiod of holidays that extends from the Jewish New Year (aka "Rosh Hashana") through Yom Kippur (aka "the Day of Atonement") until Sukkot (aka "Feast of the Tabernacles," or "the holidays where Jews build those little booths/huts in their backyards"). This is a period that is always in the fall, right after school begins. In NYC, school staff prays for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kiippur to fall on school days so they have extra vacation days; in Israel this is a period that causes a lot of backup. For example, deliveries.

I sent a lift. It's supposed to land a few days before Rosh Hashana; the guy already said to me, "Oh, nothing will happen with it until after Rosh Hashana." When I asked him if I could get it before Sukkot (about 2 weeks later), his answer was, "I'm not sure."

The chagim time period puts this country into a semi-slow-motion time period. While not everything comes to a halt, many things get considerably slowed down and it's perfectly accepted to say, "Well, it's the chagim...you know, things are busy...after the chagim for sure." Well, what good is that when you need things before?

Good thing I brought a new shirt back for Eli for Rosh Hashana instead of sending it on the lift.

About Me

I am a "young Jewish professional" originally from NYC in my 20's who made aliyah in December 2009.
This blog started out as a trip blog from my post-graduate school trip to Israel and evolved into my aliyah blog.
It's all the frustrations and good things that happen and go along in this crazy process...
I really don't know how this is going to turn out, all I know is what's happened so far.
Leave a comment, let me know what you think, offer ideas/tips, etc!